Today's random year for Bleep Years is 1994, no doubt well before you were born, oh youthful reader.
1994: Loop Guru: Jungle A
If the early 1990s was about dance culture having co-genetical rumpy pumpy with other forms of music, then nobody did it better than Nation Records. The London label crunched world music with post-rave head-beats and in the process brought us Natacha Atlas, Asian Dub Foundation and Fun-Da-Mental (the label's founder). Nation fans from back in the day will also remember collaborations with Jah Wobble and Mercury-winner Talvin Singh.
They will also remember Loop Guru, a duo who took a less commercial path while others hippety-hopped up their tablas (a technical musical term - ahem - look it up). Loop Guru's Duyina is one of the most original debut albums of the decade, all twisted with short loops, transcendental spirituality and a straight-faced quirkiness that seemed to twin Asia with the hidden side of a distant, mysterious land.
The third album track Jungle A matched a lazy chant with a basic Soul II Soul beat and has probably risen to the bubbling surface of my brain most months since I received the album as a promo from Nation Records 18 years ago. The experimentation and uncommercial stubbornness of the track defined my musical taste many years to come. I was barely in my 20s and yet I was looped up for life.
Although they've not had much space on this blog before, Loop Guru became so important, I even named a radio feature after them last year. The track doesn't appear to be on YouTube so have a listen on Spotify: Loop Guru – Jungle A
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